


poorest players on the stage

by partiallight



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Missing Scene, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 08:23:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20022340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partiallight/pseuds/partiallight
Summary: This is not the who Emet-Selch thought he would find himself relating to.





	poorest players on the stage

Emet-Selch had expected many things of the Exarch. Like that he'd have an illusory double to fend off Emet-Selch's attempt to shoot him.

(The Exarch had one, Emet-Selch disposed of it long before the Warrior of Light even managed to defeat the last Lightwarden.)

Or that he'd have an entire secret library. 

(The Exarch had one, and he gave the location up when Emet-Selch threatened to go after the Warrior of Light instead of waiting.)

Emet-Selch didn't expect the Exarch to have tears in his eyes. Without his hood to hide his expression, the Exarch is like an open book. And compared to Emet-Selch himself, he is indeed quite young. 

(A hundred years of loneliness are nothing compared to Emet-Selch's thousands of years of agony.)

And yet... it's oddly familiar. The desire to save an already lost timeline, the yearning for that one person-- Emet-Selch knows it all too well. This creature, barely worthy of being called a person, has emotions much like Emet-Selch's own.

It's the first time Emet-Selch encounters this.

"You know, it could be much worse," Emet-Selch hears himself saying, though he isn't quite sure why. "They could be dead. Or sacrificing themselves to Hydaelyn."

"What?" The Exarch looks up from the ground. "Sympathy from an Ascian? Or are you trying to mock us?"

_Well, that didn't come off as intended._

"I told you. I would've worked with them if they had withstood my trial. But in the end, your kind is barely half an Ascian."

"They haven't lost yet." The Exarch wipes the tears off of his face. "And I haven't, either."

_Infuriating._

"Oh?" Emet-Selch raises an eyebrow. "I'll take you along then. See if you can bear to watch them become a monster."

_See if you can endure the pain I've endured._


End file.
